1. The highest scoring soccer game
was 149-0! This whitewash happened
in 2002, but the truth is it was a form
of protest after a 2-2 draw between
rival teams Stade Olympique de
L’emyrne, and AS Adema of
Madagascar, which resulted in the
referees awarding a penalty causing
Stade Olympique de L’emyrne to lose
the game and lose the title. So, as a
form of protest for being robbed of the
title because of a penalty, the players
purposefully scored 149 goals into
their own net at the next game as
spectators stormed the ticket booths
demanding refunds. Besides being very
confused at first, the opposing team
eventually stood around in good humor
at the planned stunt.
2. Peter Odemwingie has won the
Premier League Player of the Month
award three times. That’s more than
Ryan Giggs, Cesc Fabregas, Roy
Keane, Robbie Fowler, David Ginola,
Teddy Sheringham, Luis Suarez and
Gianfranco Zola.
3. Think Sir Alex Ferguson managed
Man United for a long time? Guy Roux
was Auxerre boss for over forty years,
in four different spells. Between 1964
and 2004, he spent 36 consecutive
years as boss of the French club.
4. Frank Lampard has scored at least
five goals in each of the last 17
Premier League seasons (verified by
ESPN).
5. Ricky Lambert has scored 34
penalties for Southampton from 34
attempts. The great Matt Le Tissier
famously scored 47 out of 48 for the
Saints.
6. Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, or
Ronaldinho, is a renowned Brazilian
football star who has twice won FIFA
World Player of the Year. When he was
13, his team scored 23 goals against a
local team in Brazil, with Ronaldinho
netting all of the 23 goals.
7. In October of 1998, a bolt of
lightning killed an entire 11-man
soccer team somewhere in the
province of Kasai, eastern region of
the Democratic Republic of Congo, but
the opposing team was completely
unharmed. This happened during a
match between the villages of Bena
Tshadi and nearby Basangana. The
game was a draw at 1-1 when the
lightning struck the visiting team and
they all died, while the home team
members only suffer mild injuries.
Some people thought the team had
been cursed and that was what caused
the lightning to strike them.
8. Quite fittingly, Pelé is the youngest
ever World Cup winner, picking up the
gold in 1958 at just 17 years and 249
days.
Way up the other end of the scale is
former Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff,
who in 1982 became the oldest player
to lift the trophy at 40 years and 133
days.
9. Arsenal are the only team to have
received a gold version of the Premier
League trophy, when it was specially
made to commemorate their 2004
‘Invincibles’ season, instead of the
silver trophy that every other title
winning team have lifted.